I can hear Simon flapping around.
Baz dodges in front of Lamb, holding his hands out to the room. “Snow, I swear I’ll throttle you.”
“What is this, Baz?” Lamb sounds more confused than threatened. “Are you in league with these mages?”
“No.” Baz is still blocking Lamb from an invisible Simon. “Not ‘in league.’ They’re my friends, they’re trying to protect me—which I do not require.What part of ‘thumbs-up’ don’t you people understand?”
Simon shouts back: “What part of ‘Don’t leave with him’ don’t you understand?”
“I’m fine!”
“You’re in a vampire’s bedroom!”
“Iama vampire!” Baz says. “And this is a studio!”
“A vampire,” Lamb says, then looks at Penelope. “A mage…” He looks at me. “A…”
“Bleeder,” I say, waving. “Name’s Shepard.”
Lamb nods and looks over Baz’s shoulder, where Simon is disturbing the atmosphere. “And what is this?”
“His boyfriend!” Simon snarls.
Huh.I wasn’t sure. I mean, Iwondered.…
Baz covers his face.
“Boyfriend?” Lamb repeats. “What aboutAgatha?”
“There isn’t a simple explanation for any of this,” I cut in, smiling. “But there is an entertaining one. And I swear, no one here means you any harm.”
A vase topples off a table near the spot where Simon is flapping.
I keep smiling. “Maybe we could all sit down and talk?”
Fifteen minutes later, we’re all sitting on Lamb’s couches. Well, except for Simon, but that seems fair. He did break the only other chair. Lamb keeps looking over at the pieces and frowning, like he’d really rather fix his fancy chair than deal with any of us.
Lamb’smuchless vampirey-looking than Baz. (I’ve been thinking that Baz must come from a long line of vampires—a Transylvania original, with that long black hair and widow’s peak. But I guess that isn’t how vampirism works.…) Lamb’s got a soft face and a head full of soft, shiny hair. He looks exactly like you’d expect an English person to look if you’d only seen them in Jane Austen movies—sort of pencil-drawn and pretty. He’s pale, of course, and gray around the eyes. But he’s not as gray all over as Baz. Not as drained and ghostly.
If this is what a vampire is supposed to look like, then maybe Baz is a vampire with an iron deficiency.
Lamb’s definitely not scared of us. Even though we havemagic and numbers on our side. He’s treating us like four kids who just confessed to throwing a baseball through his window.
Baz is making our case: “I was telling you the truth. Agathaismy friend. We’re just trying to find her.”
Lamb frowns some more. “How can you be friends with mages? They hate us.”
“We grew up together,” Penelope explains. “We didn’t know Baz was a vampire for years.”
“Iknew,” Simon says.
Baz shakes his head, rolling his eyes. “Literally nothing you say is helpful.”
Lamb looks right through Simon. “Did you grow up with them, too, invisible boy?”
“He’s not usually invisible,” Baz mutters.
“A vampire,twomages, and a Bleeder.” Lamb sighs and stands up. Every one of us flinches. “I’m going to need a cup of tea.”
